Friday, October 7, 2011

Spooky Tricks

In our last post we saw terrific examples of "Spooky Magic" for your Halloween party, now today we have more highlights from "Spooky Tricks", an I Can Read Book (1968) by Rose Wyler and Gerald Ames, with cute pictures by Talivaldis Stubis. These are simple, effective tricks that you can perform with little or no props (aka: easy to find items probably already in your home) --so break out the ghosts and severed mummy fingers-- it's time to get seriously spooky!

Oops. It took me two days to realize this was a new post. The problem with the new widescreen shape of computer monitors is that there is much less above the fold. All I could see was the title and a sliver of the cover scan, so I thought this was the other magic trick book.

Hey, I really love the writing in this book (unlike the rest of you, I've never seen it before--my own childhood spooky tricks books are yet to be posted). The way the prose is handled is actually sort of deceptive in its tricky pretend simplicity. I laughed right out loud a couple of times.

I also love that kickass spider web page. It looks just like greeting card art to me.

I don't. And since you asked I've been wracking the internet trying to jog my memory and I can't find anything that rings a bell. I'm just assuming I'll know it when I see it, but that may not be the case. And heck, I might be remembering the back of an Electric Company or Pizzazz magazine, for all I know.

It was easy as heck to find all my favorite teen magic trick books (cards, slight of hand, that sort of thing), but the younger stuff is being difficult to turn up.

About Me

(aka Steve Banes) Editor / co-editor of IDW's Chilling Archives of Horror Comic Books: ZOMBIES, RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES, DEVIL TALES, and MUMMIES, as well as co-host of the bi-monthly HAUNTED HORROR comic series and HAUNTED LOVE miniseries. (All image scans and photography by me from items found in my own personal collection-- except where noted.)